Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West
"
"Where is Sangoa?" demanded the judge.
"It is an island of the South Seas."
"What nationality?"
"It is independent. It was purchased from Uruguay by Mr. Jones' father
many years ago, and now belongs exclusively to his son."
"Your information is indefinite," snapped the judge.
"I realize that, your honor; but my client deems it wise to keep the
location of his island a secret, because he has valuable pearl
fisheries on its shores. The pearls exhibited by the prosecution were
all found at Sangoa."
"How do you account, then, for their checking so accurately against the
list of stolen pearls?"
"I can make almost any pearls check with that list, which represents a
huge collection of almost every size, weight and color," replied Colby.
"To prove this, I will introduce in evidence Captain Carg of Sangoa, who
recently arrived at Santa Monica Bay with the last proceeds of the pearl
fisheries of the island."
Captain Carg was on hand, with his two sailors guarding the chest. He now
produced the trays of pearls and spread them on the desk before the
amazed eyes of the judge. Le Drieux was astounded, and showed it plainly
on his face.
Colby now borrowed the list, and picking up a pearl from the tray weighed
it on Le Drieux's scales and then found a parallel to it on the list.
This he did with several of the pearls, chosen at random, until one of Le
Drieux's attorneys took the expert aside and whispered to him. Then Le
Drieux's expression changed from chagrin to joy and coming forward he
exclaimed:
"Your honor, this is the collection--the balance of it--which was stolen
from the Countess Ahmberg!"
The judge looked at him a moment, leaned back in his chair and nodded his
head impressively.
"What nonsense!" protested Colby. "These trays contain twice the number
of pearls included in that entire list, as your honor may plainly see."
"Of course," retorted Le Drieux eagerly; "here are also the pearls from
the necklace of Princess Lemoine, and the London collection of Lady
Grandison.
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In a village there lived two men who had the self-same name. Both were named Claus. But one of them owned four horses, and the other owned only one horse; so to distinguish between them people called the man who had four horses Big Claus, and the man who had only one horse Little Claus. Now I'll tell you what happened to these two, for this is a true story.
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